Foreign News: Ireland

The Free State Governments ordered the release of 400 Republican
prisoners. Between Dec. 1 and Dec. 23, 3,481 prisoners were
liberated.

P. J. Rutledge, who is acting as "President of the Irish Republic"
while "President" Eamon de Valera languishes in prison alluded to the
Pope's reference to Ireland in his recent allocution.* Said he: "We
fear your Holiness must have been misinformed about the happy
approach of a settlement in Ireland."